Purchasing Timeshares Under Construction = Risky Business

Timeshares have a bad reputation for not fulfilling their promises. Why would anyone trust their hard earn money on a project that has big chances of not being completed? Learn how to keep traveling in your own terms and not with the promise that, perhaps, in that piece of land one day a timeshare will be built.

When taking a vacation, timeshare owners want the newest and most luxurious accommodation that they can afford with their hard-earned money. The timeshare scam salespeople are aware of this fact and use it to their advantage in order to increase their sales. Many timeshare resorts have developed the practice of selling pre-construction timeshare contracts which offer the best in luxury accommodations. They claim that the timeshare weeks are sold at a lower price as incentive for the timeshare owners to purchase and invest in their new project. Unfortunately, timeshares and construction in Mexico are very volatile, and as such, many timeshare owners have become stuck with a 25 or30 year contract, and no building is ever built. The timeshare owners are left with all of the responsibilities and none of the benefits of using the resort.

The strategy

In most cases, the timeshare company builds a lavish show suite on a partially prepared construction site. The timeshare resort will sometimes build one tower out of many or invest in some machinery or equipment to give the illusion that the work has already begun on the construction of the project. During the timeshare presentation, the client is taken on a tour of the site and shown the beautiful show suite and architectural model of what the site will look like upon completion. The salespeople typically claim that the resort will be finished in approximately one year’s time, so that the client will be able to use it for the first year of their timeshare contract. In many cases, the timeshare resort is not built at the end of the year-long period. After the year is over, the client will contact the resort to try to book, and they will be given excuses as to why the project was stalled and they cannot use the timeshare.

The timeshare scamsalespeople often placate their clients by giving free memberships to exchange companies so that the client can use their week at a different resort; however, many clients find that their exchange power is very limited and they are accommodated in a far lower quality hotel than what they were promised. After more time, most clients start to complain that their contract has been breached because the timeshare resort is not built. Unfortunately, most timeshare resorts that take part in this scam just avoid all further communication with the clients by blocking their calls and not responding to their emails. Many resorts are making millions of US dollars per month on fraudulent pre-construction sales. Their sales offices remain open, while their customer service for existing clients is virtually non-existent.

Timeshare Oversell

Even if they project does end up getting built, the timeshare resorts frequently oversell their occupancy during the pre-construction phase, particularly if they are working on a floating week or points system. For example, if the timeshare resort has 100 rooms, they should be able to sell 5200 weeks based on the number of weeks in a year. However, if a timeshare resort sells 10 timeshare weeks per day for 2 years, they would have sold 7300 weeks without even opening the front doors. In this scenario, timeshare owners would not be able to book 2100 timeshare weeks that they had already pre-paid. With pre-construction sales, the timeshare resorts typically sell far more weeks than they have available to clients, and when the clients go to book their time, they find that they have to book over a year in advance if they want to secure a space for their vacation.

You may ask why clients have to keep paying on the contract if the business is not fulfilling their duties by completing the construction. This can happen because the contract may be services by another resort or an exchange program that can offer the service while the project is being built. The clients are often responsible for the debt because the contracts are sold to external collections agencies that take charge of collecting the fees and can affect the clients credit rating in the US and in Canada. These fraudulent timeshare companies are very adept at ensuring that they get paid in full for their timeshare contracts that are practically worthless.

Do your homework

To avoid getting taken advantage of by a timeshare scam, it is important that you take your time when considering a purchase of this magnitude. Do not purchase without doing research on the company and its developers. Check to see if the developers have completed any other projects, and what their reputation is like for customer service. Ask to speak with some of their timeshare owners so that you can get a sense of the real experience you may have with the timeshare.

If you have purchased a pre-construction Timeshare contract and are concerned that the property has not been built, contact us today for a free consultationwith one our associates. They will advise you about up-to-date information about the timeshare resort, and let you know if there are possibilities to cancel your contract and recover your money.

Information to share

If you liked this article, please help us to share this information to more people in order to avoid more timeshare scams victims, how?

people still believe in this kind of fraud, a timeshare is a very risky thing , the persons who bought timeshares is very diffcicult for them to make a cancellation , those resorts makes an excelent job to hook people , and in this case is MORE risky to get involed with a timeshare, think about it.

Matt H.May 18, 2015, 9:54 am

Actually buying a timeshare is a very RISKY thing , so you can imagine now that to buy a timeshare that are under construction is the double of risk.. many times this resorts can scam you and never give to you the timeshare thay you buy before, because is not exist , people read more abouut timeshare business and be careful pls.

nayFebruary 20, 2015, 5:35 pm

is so risky to buy somehing that doesnt exist ,many times the construction could be suspended or cancelled, and the refund process of your money can be a mess, even if the timeshares already exist ,in my opinion , for own experience , buy a timeshare is not a good investment to do , and all the timeshare sellers are scammers, so pls stay away of this field , all people think that could be a good idea, but is not like that , so be careful

TonyDecember 15, 2014, 11:29 pm

With only see the title is weird, why buy something that doesnt exist? in real life we dont live for promises, so this option is not valid , dont be scammed and verify the company first , a timeshare is not a good investment, keep that in mind

kittles35October 11, 2014, 11:51 am

Thanks for the info! I've only had my timeshare for two years now, and have been doing my homework here on MTS learning all about it. I think my husband would have a heart attack if we received one of these.

Sally VixensSeptember 22, 2014, 11:01 am

I have never heard anything good about time share investments. Only horror stories of how they are locked in and how much it is costing.

MikeAugust 25, 2014, 10:41 am

Timeshares are a scam. I bought one 10 years ago and have regretted it ever since. It is nearly impossible to trade it for someplace you want to go, when you want to go. When you throw in the maintenance fees and the mandatory membership fees for Interval International or similar, the cost is higher than a hotel. Perhaps when the hotel costs were the largest expense for a vaction a timeshare made sense. Now that air travel is the largest expense and booking packages on line give you the best deals, timeshares are useless.

frank moatsAugust 7, 2014, 2:25 pm

Someone in my Myspace group shared this site with us and said that we may find it as a great resource tool with our timeshare that we bought in mexico. Can you also help out with timeshares purchased in other countries. We liked all inclusive years ago but now most resorts have too much drinking going on which has changed the feel of the resorts. We still like quiet all inclusive resorts but it is true that the prices have gone up immensly in the past few years so I can see how it has become the new profitable model. Lets hope for the best for us consumers out there. great post!

SandyJuly 22, 2014, 8:20 am

I never understood why people would buy a time share. It seems very, very expensive, but I guess if you have the money. I just discovered the house swap area of Craigslist and it’s looking interesting to me. Might be a decent replacement for a time share?

SandyJuly 22, 2014, 8:19 am

I never understood why people would buy a time share. It seems very, very expensive, but I guess if you have the money. I just discovered the house swap area of Craigslist and it’s looking interesting to me. Might be a decent replacement for a time share?